The Israeli ambassador considers exodus “Nakba” as an Arab lie
Hotovely refers to the occupied territories as Judea and Samaria, homeland of Israelis thousand years ago
Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) denounced the upcoming meeting between the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Sheikh Fawaz Al Khalifa, and the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates, Mansour Abdullah Balhoul, scheduled to take place during a religious festival on December 15, 2020.
AOHR UK pointed out that Hotovely abhorrent bigotry towards the Palestinians is not concealed. She refers to occupied territories as Judea and Samaria, considering it as homeland of Israelis for thousands of years. Moreover, she views the Nakba-exodus 1948, mass killing and displacement of Palestinians as an Arab lie. Hotovely served in many positions in Netanyahu’s government, and the Settlement Minister was one of them.
Hundreds of Jews, activists and human rights defenders protested against candidacy of Hotovely as an ambassador to the UK last June. They called the British government to discard her nomination as this would only help spread more hatred and division due to the role she played in the human rights violations in the occupied territories. However, the British government -led by Boris Johnson- ignored her black record, accredited her, and she became the Israeli ambassador to the UK.
Hotovely, who presents the extreme right and promotes projects which deny the rights of Palestinians, will be meeting with the ambassadors of the UAE and Bahrain on the Festival of Lights “Hanukah”.
The Festival will be organised by Board of Deputies of British Jewish and Jewish News, supported by the UAE-UK Business Council and the UAE-Israeli Business Council.
AOHR UK confirmed that such meetings between the normalizing parties and an ambassador with extreme right-wing views encourage Hotovely to promote her propaganda aimed at eliminating the Palestinians from their lands.
AOHR UK also pointed out that such meeting with an Israeli official from the far right is not odd thing for countries like the UAE and Bahrain, given that the so-called peace agreements were concluded with the far right under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyah. Moreover, the two countries sign economic and investment agreements with settlements in the West Bank.
These meetings and projects reveal the deceptions of the UAE leaders who justified the normalization agreements as a mean to prevent the annexation of the occupied territories in 1967. The UAE is implementing unprecedented acts, since most countries with diplomatic relations with Israel distinguish between the economy of the settlements in the occupied territories and the economy of Israel.
AOHR UK stressed that the recklessness of the UAE leaders and the huge economic, security and military relations they have with Israel, make them vulnerable to international criminal responsibility on serious charges, including supporting the settlements, and this alone, according to the Geneva convictions, is a war crime.
